Part of the TV landscape

PRODUCER: Julian O'Brien.

Relevant offers

TV

Which CSI era is your favourite? Paul Henry's disjointed return to TV Surgery leaves Adele's voice intact TV show host's jibes 'helped Rimes' Freeview adds new channel A Sheep's Show How many chances for Once Upon a Time? Entertainment Quiz 10/2 House to end after current season Rescued dog bites TV host during broadcast

Country Calendar has been an institution in New Zealand television for, well, it almost seems forever. ROSA SHIELS caught up with Julian O'Brien, one of the show's producers, to find out why it has proved so popular with Kiwi viewers.

Drenching, dagging and dog trials. Add a certain soundtrack, give it the 7pm Saturday slot, and probably every New Zealander over the age of six or seven would know they are about to watch Country Calendar.

For 45 years, the people behind this show have been bringing the country to the city, showing suburbia what happens just beyond the back fence and further into the heart of the interior.

We might be an agriculture-based economy, but New Zealand is one of the most urbanised countries in the world. Despite that, we are proud of the beauty of the land and its productivity, and appear to remain intrigued about what goes on out there for those who work its alpine reaches and open tussock plains.

Julian O'Brien, one of the show's two producers, says, "New Zealanders, Maori and Pakeha, have a strong identification with the land. I think it's almost a spiritual connection". He believes Country Calendar fosters that relationship, continuing to deliver the inside story with a light touch.

There might be technical information in a segment, but the show is more infotainment than educational, with human-interest stories at its heart.

"Certainly, there are gorgeous backdrops and beautiful scenery, which we try to make the most of in the show, but in the end they are people stories; stories about people who are hands-on on the land."

Through the years the programme has covered the usual rural themes, such as cattle mustering, dog trials, Golden Shears, rabbits, drought and blizzards, but the topics are open-ended, like human endeavour, and now you can just as easily see something on biodynamics and tuna as goats and grape-growers.

Country Calendar also follows agrarian pursuits and sciences that have taken Kiwis offshore. Such a programme just screened which looked at a New Zealand company with a factory in China where they are processing the luo han, a melon- like Chinese fruit, into a sugar-dense powder. This powdered reduction is said to be about 300 times sweeter than sugar, but calorie-free, because it is not absorbed by the body. The product has the potential for worldwide use as a food sweetener, for example.

"The other thing about the show," O'Brien says, "is that we always try to keep a huge variety going, with lots of different types of stories."

Southern stories coming up include a West Otago farmer who is looking into alternative methods to drenching and dagging, and a horse-and-rider trainer from Somerville, near Rangiora (April 3), who runs a school, teaching people to improve their riding techniques and relationship with their horses.

"He has a special way with horses. We have some amazing footage of him showing how much control he's got."

There's a Dunedin-based artist who goes on musters and paints; a beekeeper from Hawea who is making innovative honey products for the health-food market ("a nice entrepreneurial story with some beautiful backgrounds") and a cafe owner in central Christchurch, who uses fair-trade Samoan coffee in line with his philosophy of helping create a sustainable coffee industry in the Pacific.

O'Brien and co-producer Frank Torley head a team of about eight independent reporter-directors, all contracted to the show, seeking stories from around the country. Other potential stories might be referred to the team during the course of a rural shoot; people sometimes offer themselves as a focus, or recommendations are received in writing or via the Country Calendar website. By April or May, the following year's schedule is well bedded in and budgeted.

Whether it's rodeos and tractors, blokes who fish for a living, aunties Maud and Moana who've baked scones for the shearers since way back when, or some old codger who's been out on the land for so long his visage reflects the craggy outcrops on his property, Country Calendar has something for everyone, and that is at the heart of its endurance and popularity.

The show's presenters do their research then treat their subjects with respect, staying out of the limelight and allowing the people to tell their own stories.

"I think the audience is receptive to the show," O'Brien says.

"When you ring up people and say, 'I'm from television', people are, at the very least, cautious. But if you ring up and say, 'I'm from Country Calendar', they immediately say, 'Oh, how can I help you out?' "

qCountry Calendar, TV One, 7pm Saturdays; repeated, TVNZ6, 10.30pm, Mon-Fri.

- © Fairfax NZ News